Last week one of our technicians was called out to a home in New Farm in Brisbane to treat bed bugs. The customer had found bite marks over his body after sleeping in his bed. Upon looking around his bed, the customer was mortified to discover bed bugs on the headboard. It turns out that the customer does a lot of travelling for work and while staying at 4 and 5 star hotels throughout Australia had managed to pick up bed bugs.
As horrified as the customer was, the first job our technicians at Results Home Services are trained to do is to put our clients at at ease about bed bugs. Picking up bed bugs has nothing to do with hygiene but more about bad luck. Bed bugs are not uncommon as most think, in fact we treat at least two homes/motels most week.
A lot of our customers who travel outside of Brisbane ask us how best to avoid bed bugs. Here are a few tips that may make you sleep better next time you stay away from home.
On entry to your hotel room, do not put your bags on the floor or bed, use the suitcase rack that is provided. Have a look around the bed area. What you are looking for is spot marks like in the photo, this is old blood passed by the bed bugs. The best practice is to lift the sheets away from the mattress at the corners and fold back the piping around the mattress and around the headboard. Another common place is under the seat cushions of the sofa/lounge suite (as seen in picture). If you find any spotting or bed bugs, remove yourself and your bags from the room and report your findings to hotel management. Please remember the hotel may not know that they have bed bugs as they are very good at staying out of view.
If you look closely at the photo you should be able to see the bed bug eggs (white capsules), if you would like more information about bed bugs or if you think you may have bed bugs call us at Results Home Services and have one of our technicians call out to have a look for you.